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Photo, Print, Drawing Great Olympic Circus with Brothers Luigi and Giovanni Guillaume. Gran Circo Olimpico fratelli Luigi e Giovanni Guillaume

About this Item

Title

  • Great Olympic Circus with Brothers Luigi and Giovanni Guillaume.

Other Title

  • Gran Circo Olimpico fratelli Luigi e Giovanni Guillaume

Summary

  • Presented here is an advertising poster for the performance of the equestrian acrobats of Luigi and Giovanni Guillaume's company Gran Circo Olimpico (Great Olympic Circus), dated May 24, 1846, and issued by Taddei, a local printer in Ferrara. The Guillaume family, hailing from France, was the most active dynasty in the Italian circus scene in the 19th century. No certain documentation on their origins can be found--one account describes them as Lyon noblemen who escaped to Italy from the French Revolution and employed their riding skills in acrobatic equestrian shows; another says that they were circus performers who continued in Italy the acts they had performed in their youth in France. The earliest references to the family in Italy go back to September 1804, after which various family members were active in circuses for about the next 100 years. The last known family name in the business is that of Rodolfo Guillaume, after which a marriage between circus families led to the Guillaumes being subsumed into the Gatti-Manetti Circus. The first name of the circus dynasty was Francois Louis, later Francesco Luigi, who founded his own circus. Francesco Luigi worked together with his wife Maddalena, who performed as an Amazon. Husband and wife performed at the Arena in Verona in 1811, during the celebrations for the birth of Napoleon's son, François Joseph Charles Bonaparte. The Guillaume family had sufficiently close relations with the imperial dynasty that Napoleon's sister, Caroline, Queen of Naples, was godmother of one of the Guillaume daughters. This relationship obviously helped the Guillaumes to become the most popular circus company in Italy during the period of French domination. The family settled in Brescia in 1817, when it is known that Francesco Luigi Guillaume resided in his own home in the city. By 1851 the theater bearing the family name was used almost exclusively for their performances--this was something unique in Italy. No other circus family had this privilege.

Created / Published

  • Ferrara, Italy : Taddei Print House, 1846.

Headings

  • -  Italy
  • -  1846-05-24
  • -  Acrobatics
  • -  Broadsides
  • -  Circus performers
  • -  Entertainers

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 1 poster ; 49.5 x 43 centimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: Educational Documentation Centre of Circus Arts (CEDAC).
  • -  Content in Italian.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021670964

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Great Olympic Circus with Brothers Luigi and Giovanni Guillaume. Italy, 1846. Ferrara, Italy: Taddei Print House. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670964/.

APA citation style:

(1846) Great Olympic Circus with Brothers Luigi and Giovanni Guillaume. Italy, 1846. Ferrara, Italy: Taddei Print House. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021670964/.

MLA citation style:

Great Olympic Circus with Brothers Luigi and Giovanni Guillaume. Ferrara, Italy: Taddei Print House. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021670964/>.